Warriors For The Working Day

Chapter Fifteen

By
(UCSBdad)

Disclaimer: Stolen about equally from the Henson Co., David Drake and a bit from George MacDonald Fraser. Shakespeare is in the public domain, I hope. In any case, no money changes hands here. Rating: T due to language. Time: Some twenty-five plus years after Peacekeeper Wars.

Eddie and Aida looked into the holo of the Royal Planet's solar system in the center of the CIC. We squeezed into seats behind them.

"Return the defense satellites to full operation." Aida said. "This couldn't be a friendly visit. Our luck hasn't been that good."

"More ships, sir." One of the officers said. "One, two, three….no, four groups, all outside the system defenses. The last ships are smaller than the first group."

"Any ideas as to what or who they are?" Aida asked.

There was a buzz of conversation in the CIC as the officers compared notes. Finally one spoke. "They're almost certainly warships, sir. The first group are ships about our size with smaller escorts." There was a pause of a few microns. "We make them at five battleships plus six destroyer sized escorts. And a possible cruiser. The other four groups seem to be armored cruiser or cruiser sized ships, four or five ships per group."

"Any ideas about who they are, or what they intend to do?" Eddie asked. "I assume they're hostiles, but can we make anything of them other than that?"

There was more discussion among the officers in the CIC. Then someone spoke. "Directed energy weapon signatures, sir! It seems to be coming from only the four groups of smaller ships. The battleships and their escorts are still lying doggo, sir."

Suddenly Admiral de Coucy spoke. "I think I know what they're up to. Check their EW emissions."

There was a brief flurry of activity, then an officer smiled and nodded. "You're right, sir. The four smaller groups are using their electronic warfare suites to make the defense satellites think they're being attacked by four very powerful task forces, much bigger than the five battleships they actually are facing." He stopped for a microt and checked his computer screen. "They're using EW drones as well, sir. Lots of them."

Eddie stroked his lower lip. "So, when the defense satellites are convinced they're about to be over-run by the four phony task forces, the real raiding force will punch through the defenses and hit the Royal Planet."

There were nods all around.

"De Coucy, can we tell the satellites to ignore the decoys and worry only about the real threat?"

De Coucy leaned over a computer console and had a brief conversation with a couple of his officers. "No sir. We can't punch through the enemy EW at this distance and even if we could, I don't think the satellite's programming is sophisticated enough to ignore what it sees as a definite threat."

Aida craned her head around to get a look at one of the CIC holo repeaters. "We can detect them. Why haven't they spotted our fleet?"

Another officer stood so that he could be seen over his monitor. "Ma'am, it looks to me that they're putting out so much EW that they have to focus their own sensors on the defense satellites immediately in front of them to pick up anything. They've essentially blinded themselves to anything other than the planet's defenses."

Eddie and Aida exchanged glances and then smiles.

"Well, then," Eddie said, still smiling, "I suggest we show them what this planet's defenses are really like. Admiral de Coucy, move us towards their battleships, if you please. We'll call them Group Alpha. And please have Erin and her escorts join us at their best speed."

He looked at the holographic projection of the Royal Planet's solar system in the middle of the CIC and then continued. "I should think that Task Force Two is best positioned to deal with the other four groups, Groups Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo. My compliments to Admiral McCain and ask him to divide his Task Force into four Task Groups to take those bastards on."

We headed straight for the five battleships for nearly a half an arn.

"Group Alpha has opened fire on the satellites!"

Everyone's attention immediately focused on the CIC holo showing the area of space ahead of us.

"Group Alpha is moving." An officer called out.

Up ahead I could see the defense satellites firing and the return fire from the raiders. Then they had punched through the satellites' perimeter, even as the satellites swarmed around them firing madly.

At least some of them had. The destroyer sized ships had been shot to pieces and the cruiser was dead in space, nearly cut in half. Of the five battleships, two appeared to have taken minimal damage and were headed straight for us and the Royal Planet. The other three had been hit hard. One was just barely moving and showed heavy damage near the engines. The other two weren't moving at all, but the damage to them wasn't concentrated in one area. Their crews would have them under way if we didn't prevent them.

"Ships ID'ed, sir. Scarrens. The ships headed for us are Scarren dreadnaughts,"

Someone else spoke up. "The lead dreadnaught is broadcasting. He's got a message on a loop. I'm putting it up."

A Charrid face appeared in the CIC holo. "I am Admiral Pohtalken of the Charrid Empire and I have come to eat your children."

"Cheerful bastard." Eddie remarked. "I think we can give him a meal he hadn't expected." He turned to me. "Aeryn, our intel says Scarren capital ships are like PK ships, and depend on directed energy weapons like frag cannons. Correct?"

I nodded. "Exactly. But Scarrens depend more on overwhelming power than Peacekeepers ships do. So their frag cannons are more powerful, but they have a shorter range. Less than the forty thousand metras of similar Peacekeeper weapons."

Eddie examined the holo showing our enemies for a few microns. "Good enough. We'll go right between them. Port side missiles fire at the portside target and vice versa for the starboard. We should get at least two broadsides into them, maybe three."

"Enemy ships are launching attack craft, sir."

The holo showed fighters swarming out of the two ships heading for us, and also out of the three damaged ships far behind them.

"We don't know much about their attack craft, Aeryn. Can you give us anything on them?" Kathleen asked.

"Bigger, tougher and slower that a Prowler, and they have a crew of two, a pilot and a gunner. They use one heavy duty cannon with a maximum of six shots. And they have to get in close to use it."

"They aren't waiting to hit us in one wave." One of the CIC officers noted. "The fighters from the first two ships will get here a good fifteen minutes before the rest get here." He leaned over and checked something on the computer monitor beside his. "And the three damaged ships are launching fewer fighters. They must have taken a lot of casualties."

There was another buzz of conversation between the CIC officers and then he continued. "The two nearer targets have launched about two hundred and twenty fighters between them. The last three have launched fewer. I make it one hundred and ninety."

Human warships are designed to defend themselves against missiles that are smaller, faster and more maneuverable than Charrid fighters. As the fighters began their attack runs, Donegal's defenses opened up. First her secondary batteries, then anti-missile missiles and finally close-in directed energy weapons. The first wave of fighters was shredded. Normal tactics for the Charrid renegades would be to concentrate their fighters on one part of an enemy ship. But, between having their formations shot to pieces before they could close, and the human tactic of constantly rolling Donegal to keep an undamaged side towards the enemy, the tactic failed.

Not that we didn't take some damage. But we were losing external comm and sensor arrays, directed energy mounts, escape pods, re-supply gantries and the like. All of these, while important, were too numerous and too redundant to be totally destroyed by the enemy fighters available. In addition, our main missile batteries, engines and sensors remained undamaged under our armor.

Not that we didn't get some scares.

"What the frell was that?" I yelled as I was nearly tossed out of my chair.

"One of them went kamikaze, sir. Right between Main Missile Fifteen and Sixteen." Someone called out. "Damage control is sending a drone out to look around. We're trying to reestablish contact with that section now."

We all waited for microts while the CIC crew tried to find out what had happened.

"DC, say again?"

One of the CIC officers stood up. "Sir, DC Party Two Two reports we need a new paint job on the armor. Anti-missile Four Four and Four Five, and their associated sensors should have been shredded. They didn't get hit. Not so much as a stinking scratch."

"How'd we lose the comms to that section?" Aida shot back.

The officer laughed. "One of the skivvy wavers was…"

"Say again, Lieutenant Brod. Properly." Aida cut him off.

"Sorry, Ma'am." The lieutenant said, still smiling. "A communications technician was checking a junction box. When we got hit, he was knocked down. He grabbed a comm line and as he fell he pulled it lose. That caused the comm loss."

A nervous laugh ran around the CIC.

Eddie laughed and shook his head. "I'll be more than happy with a battle where our biggest scare comes from something we did."

"What's left of the first wave seems to be breaking off, sir." That was Lieutenant Brod. "It looks like they're planning to join up with the second group of fighters."

"How long until they arrive?" Aida asked.

"Twenty plus minutes, ma'am." was the reply. "I think they launched damaged fighters that can't hit their normal cruising speed. But the second wave will be about the same size as the first. And they've seen us now. They'll know what to expect."

The Charrids knew what to expect, but not how to defeat the human warship. Their attack ended with a few more human dead and wounded, a bit more damage to Donegal, and no more Charrid fighters.

The two renegade Charrid dreadnaughts were still headed straight for us. And for the Royal Planet behind us.

"Incoming comm, sir."

"From who?" Eddie asked.

"The Charrid admiral, sir. Admiral Pohtalken."

Eddie looked around the CIC and then shrugged. "Put him on. See what he has to say."

Pohtalken's face appeared in the CIC holo. "Very good, for a Sebacean. I shall gain great power by eating your children." The message ended with a shriek of laughter from Pohtalken.

"Any reply, sir?"

Eddie smiled grimly. "Oh, definitely. In about another four minutes."

The battle between Donegal and the two Charrid dreadnaughts was fast, one sided, destructive, but initially disappointing.

Donegal launched her first salvo of 120 missiles from well outside the range of the dreadnaughts' cannons. As usual, some twenty percent of the missiles were what the humans called "penaids", or penetration aids. Missiles whose job was to jam enemy sensors so they couldn't see the missiles headed for them, or missiles that spoofed the enemy, making them think that there were hundreds of missiles where in fact there were none.

The dreadnaughts' defenses were designed to knock down Prowlers and not faster, smaller missiles, but the defensive missiles and guns were still numerous and effective. And all Scarren built ships were very well armored. Half of the first salvo found a target, although fewer missiles hit Pohtalken's flagship. Nearly two thirds of the second salvo found their targets, and the other dreadnaught was badly damaged, slowing to about three quarters speed. The third and last salvo was fired as Donegal was slightly past the two dreadnaughts. Since the missiles had to chase their targets, the Charrid gunners had more time to engage our missiles. Less than a quarter of the missiles hit their targets. This time Pohtalken's flagship took most of the hits.

Once more, Pohtalken's face appeared in the CIC holo. "Very good, Sebacean. I am most impressed. Had I had only one vessel, you would surely eat my children. But you are now going directly away from us at maximum speed. I will have several arns in which to explore the many bloody delights that now await me on your planet." The comm ended.

Eddie laughed. "Well, he will find some bloody delights there. Now, let's get to the three cripples still ahead of us and make sure they cause no harm."

I stood up to protest leaving the Royal Planet defenseless, but stopped before saying a word.

"Yes, Aeryn?" Aida asked.

I stood there thinking for a microt. "He's headed into an ambush, isn't he?"

A laugh ran around the CIC.

"You are so right, my dear." Eddie said to Aida. "She is very good."

Eddie changed the holo to show a schematic of the Royal Planet's solar system. "Due to the need for diplomatic niceties, I only took Donegal through their defenses to pay my little call on Empress Novia. But just in case I had to fight to get you three back, I had two Task Forces sneak past when Empress Novia's lads were distracted. Now I have about a quarter of my fleet behind the Royal Planet where Admiral Pohtalken can't see them until it's too late." Eddie examined the schematic for a microt. "What do you think, de Coucy? I'd say Pohtalken will get ambushed about an hour before we get to the outer solar system where the three cripples are."

De Coucy agreed and he was right. As soon as the Charrids were too close to the Royal Planet to abort their planned attack, the humans moved out from behind the planet. I was told later that not all of the human ships were able to fire on the two dreadnaughts. Some were still behind the planet and some to the rear of the formation were blocked by ships in front of them. In any case more than a thousand missiles were fired at the two ships which were blanketed in nuclear explosions. Amazingly, the explosions from the breached fusion bottles on the two ships passed nearly unnoticed.

It was overkill. But, as Rudy said, that was the point. Very few people had ever seen two Scarren built dreadnaughts completely vaporized at close range over their own planet. It did give the inhabitants of the Royal Planet something to consider.

"Erin and her escorts coming up from astern." Someone announced.

The tactical display holo disappeared and was replaced by the face of a human officer. "Sorry we didn't get here in time to take some shots at that bastard, sir."

Eddie shook his head. "Not to worry, Tom. I didn't expect that you'd make it and we had everything under control as it turned out. I appreciate your sentiments, though."

Eddie glanced down at one of the computer screens. "Ah, I see you have Shannon with you. How do you like commanding an armored cruiser, David? And I do apologize for not congratulating you personally on your promotion."

A second human face appeared in the upper quadrant of the holo. "I couldn't be happier with Shannon, sir. An armored cruiser is the best ship anyone can command. No apology is needed, sir."

The CIC crew laughed along with Eddie.

"Well, youngster, you may feel differently when you command a battleship." Eddie's face became serious. "Well then, gentlemen, we have some cripples to dispatch. I don't want anything fancy, we'll just take them one at a time starting with the one that's still managing to move. When we get in range, we'll just fire half a stonk at each one. That should do it."

Eddie brought the tactical display back up on the CIC holo. "As you can see, we have some wrecked destroyers and a cruiser about. It's unlikely that any crew survived, or that any of them could ever be repaired. But, just to be sure, we'll put a missile in each one as we go by."

"There is one exception, though." Eddie used an electronic marker to outline what appeared to be about half of a destroyer. "This one is missing her entire engine room and those stubs you see are what's left of her armament and sensor pylons. Tom, I'd like you to detach a cruiser to board that one. We'll send you the engineering schematics our intel people have come up with, and we'd like you to cut through her hull and pull her main computer memory core out. If you find anyone alive in there, prisoners to interrogate would be nice. But don't take any chances. When you're done, blow her up."

The humans set to work. None of the three dreadnaughts were able to fire on us and their defensive fire was almost non-existent. They, and what was left of the other ships, were soon reduced to a random collection of radioactive atoms.

The cruiser got the computer memory and even a wounded prisoner. The prisoner was of low rank and had nothing useful to tell us. Later I heard that at the request of the Royal Planet, he was turned over to them. I never heard what happened to him, but no doubt it was very long and very painful.

Donegal and the other ships returned to the Royal Planet and went into orbit along with the two other Task Forces already there. The humans opened up the defensive perimeter again and brought in the rest of their fleet, including the Task Forces that had originally been left outside the defensive perimeter. I doubt if anyone on the Royal Planet had ever seen so many ships in one place before. There were not just the warships in Eddie's combat fleet, but the transports and planetary assault ships carrying his ground forces, not to mention their fire support ships, mostly obsolete battleships and cruisers, and their numerous destroyer and smaller sized escorts.

Also present was the fleet train. Ships carrying all of the supplies that the fleet and army would need as well as repair ships and even factory ships that could build anything the humans needed, up to missile frigates. They, of course, also had numerous escorts.

Aside from scouts prowling outside the Royal Planet's perimeter defenses and a few ships out checking nearby solar systems, the whole fleet was now crammed into orbit around Empress Novia's world.

That's when Eddie decided to comm the Empress again.

"Good day to you, Princess Katralla. And may I speak to your mother, the Empress, please?"

Katralla was standing in the throne room beside her mother's chair. "My mother is ill and has retired to her quarters under the supervision of a Diagnosan. If you have a message, I can forward it to her." She said coldly.

I suppose that everyone realized that was a lie. Katralla was now in charge and Novia was a figurehead.

Eddy nodded sadly. "Please convey my respects to Her Majesty and my hopes that she recovers soon."

Katralla nodded briskly. "Thank you. If that is all you have to say, I have duties to attend to."

"Your Highness, I would really like to suggest that you reconsider my previous proposal to provide you with some ships to back up your defense satellites. We can also upgrade your satellites, although they'll never be as good as more modern weaponry. We can also sell you modern orbital defenses, complete with missiles, sensors, and a training team. You should also consider buying some system defense boats and in the long run, acquiring your own fleet."

Katralla was instantly suspicious. I believe that she had thought that her planet was about to get the same kind of treatment that the Charrids would have given them. Her eyes narrowed and she stared at Eddie for a good micron before she replied.

"And why would you do this when you could take anything you want from our world?"

"Because it's my business, Your Highness. You know, "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"?" Eddie stopped and scratched his head for a micron. "Well, no, you may not have heard that one. But I'm the leader of the rough men around here and we do need to be paid for doing violence, you know. We'll call the destruction of the Charrid raiders a free demonstration. Oh, by the by, I think we got all of the ships that were outside of your defenses, pretending to be a great horde of raiders, but I could be wrong. Other Charrids may know your defenses can be penetrated."

"As for why I don't simply take what I want? Well, I have no wish to burden you with a long lecture on recent human history, but I have noticed that those rough men who only take and provide nothing in return tend to get fat, sloppy and lazy. They often die at the hands of those once peaceable people they take from."

Katralla was by no means convinced. "And how are we to pay for your large and expensive fleet?"

That was Rudy's cue. He stepped forward so he could be seen by the holo camera. "To begin with, you won't need our entire fleet. I doubt that even one full Task Force would be needed. Possibly a half of one, but it could be no more than a third."

"As far as payment goes, we found through our contacts with your merchants who used Scipio Africanus that you had quite a thriving interstellar trade until a couple of generations ago. It wasn't until the Scarrens and the Peacekeepers started putting pressure on you that a policy of isolationism began to take hold. The products of the Royal Planet are in great demand in the outside galaxy. I've taken the liberty of putting together a few numbers that might interest you. Would you like to call in your economic advisers?"

And so the negotiations began. Princess Katralla was, naturally, suspicious. She insisted on having her own people inspect every ship and sometimes she did the inspections herself. Unfortunately for her, few of her people had much of a grasp of any type of military technology, much less the very unfamiliar human technology. She also hated to have to depend on mercenaries who she viewed as driven by greed and not more pure motives. Eventually she had to concede that if Human Forces Command was only looking to take the money and run, as John might have said, they could easily do just that. And, there was no other defense available against any second group of raiders.

The negotiations dragged on for nearly three weekens. During that time, Kathleen, Aida, Eddie and Rudy were often busy and I rarely saw them.

Jenavian, I found, had returned to the Royal Planet. Whether in her capacity as a Disrupter, an agent for the humans, or both, or neither, I never discovered. Nor did I care.

I spent time with Chiana and Jool. I eventually wrote another letter to my children, trying to remain bright and upbeat, without telling them anything about where I was or what I was doing in case the information should accidentally fall onto the hands of anyone still chasing John.

By Cholak! Where was John?

I found that many large human ships had hydroponics gardens. There was one on Donegal and I often went there, trying to think of some way to find my husband.

At the other end of the garden, I saw a familiar looking couple. As they got closer, I saw their grey hair. It was Gunner Ismaili and Lieutenant Redd. Redd looked younger, fitter and happier than she had when I had first seen her. Whether it was because she was getting frelled regularly, or because her wounds had healed or what I couldn't tell. But, as they walked down another aisle in the garden, I did hope that it was because she had found someone in this universe who made her want to be more.

I decided to go see if any of the O'Donnells or Rudy was available. Perhaps we could come up with an idea to help me find John.

The O'Donnells were having a meal the humans called "brunch". I was invited to join them and was just looking at something a fruit cocktail when Rudy arrived.

"A courier is just in from Arsenal. According to the pilot, he's only a few days ahead of a good sized force that Admiral Cunningham assembled and sent on to us. I took the liberty of having the more routine messages printed." Rudy handed Eddy a data flimsy. "These are the ships and units we're getting."

Eddie ran his finger down the list. "Bloody good. It looks like we'll leave the Royal Planet stronger than when we arrived, in spite of leaving ships here. How's Cunningham doing?"

Rudy smiled. "We really should make him the planetary governor. Industrial production is ahead of schedule. Food stocks exceed what we hoped for. Ships are moving through the yards at a remarkable clip, and new ground units are being raised, equipped and trained rapidly. And, when we get back to Arsenal, we probably won't be able to see the planet for all the orbital forts and SDBs around it."

Aida snorted. "I suggest that you tell Cunningham that he'll be planet bound, Rudy, and not going back into space."

Rudy laughed and shook his head vigorously. "I do not have a death wish."

"Any new units arrived?" Kathleen asked.

Rudy gave her another data flimsy. "Marshall Poniatowski has arrived with his corps and has asked to join us. A very nice addition to our forces."

Eddie shook his head as he looked over the order of battle for Poniatowski's corps. "I never thought old Josef would follow us, but I'm glad he's here."

"Admiral Horthy has also asked to join us." Rudy added.

"Christ! That old bastard is as stubborn as…as…"

"As you are, Daddy." Kathleen finished.

Rudy continued. "There still seems to be an endless supply of prisoners of one sort or another from Sibir. We're getting them by the shipload."

Eddie shrugged and looked at the relevant data flimsy. "We'll manage. Anyone come through and not ask to join us?"

Rudy extracted a flimsy and handed it to Eddie. Aida leaned over his shoulder to check it with him.

"No one we'd miss." She said sharply. "And only a few we'd even tolerate."

"They'll all be problems, though." Eddie said quietly.

"Anything else?"

Rudy smiled directly at me. "Why, yes. We did receive a personal message from Dominar Rygel XVI of Hyneria. I have the data chip right here. What do you suppose he wants?"

"You'd better hope he doesn't want a K'hiff-skin coat after keeping this until last." I said. I tried to sound angry, but I was too excited, too frightened and too hopeful to manage it.